Art Quilting 101 Tutorial - Finishing

This is the final part of how to finish an art quilt.  Of course, you can do it however you want to.  I just thought I'd offer you one way to do it if you've never made an art quilt before.

First, you'll want to choose a backing fabric.  I like something light in color so I can sign and date it.  Lay it right side down on your work space:

On top of that, lay down a piece of quilt batting.  I prefer cotton quilt batting:

Finally, on top of that, lay your stitched piece down right side up:

Now, pin all three layers together just along the outside edge:

Next, simply top stitch around the outside of your quilt.  I used the same gold metallic thread that I use when I pieced it:

You can either make it a rectangle or curve the edges like I did:

Here's a photo of the back so you can see how I sewed it:

Now for the fun part!  Trim the edges with pinking shears about 1/2 inch from sewing line:

If you don't have pinking shears, just use a regular pair of sewing scissors:

Now you'll want to add something for hanging it.  You can use lace, ribbon, fabric, yarn or whatever you choose  I used some dyed strips of fabric:

You can sew them to the top of the quilt or on the back side of the quilt.  There's no right or wrong way:

I like to leave some excess so that it dangles.

Finally, you can use a tree stick, a knitting needle, a dowel rod or again, whatever you have on hand or choose to use will work.  I used a tree stick and wrapped it with lace and some dyed fabric strips and then added some fuzzy yarn:

Carefully slide the hanger into the loops.  When you have it in place where you want it, use a little glue gun glue to hold the loops in place on the hanger.

At this point, if you want to add some flowers or anything else that can be glued on, go for it!  I used some old flowers from a vintage hat to finish it off.

I hope you've found this tutorial helpful.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me.  If you've been working on an art quilt using my tutorial, please send me a photo or a link to your blog or website and I will gladly share it here.